Completed in 1910 for US$750,000, the Rio Grande Depot was built to outshine the Union Pacific Depot nearby. Completed in 1910 at a cost of US$750,000, this was the railroad's main jewel, a deliberate statement designed to outshine the nearby Salt Lake City Union Pacific Depot, built the previous year for US$300,000. The depot's architect was Chicago's Henry Schlacks, a man best known there for his church designs and for a Denver and Rio Grande Depot in Grand Junction, Colorado.
Schlacks's relationship with the Denver and Rio Grande was fraught with antagonism, mainly over his pay, and those tensions delayed construction; ironically, his brother served as the railroad's vice president. Look closely at the building's Renaissance Revival and Beaux Arts detailing, its formal balance, and the high-arched windows at the center. Those windows were originally installed with green glass to keep the waiting area cool.
Inside, the depot once contained a barber shop, a restaurant, a men's smoking room and a women's... You can still feel the civic ambition in the high-arched windows, once glazed in green glass to keep the waiting room cool.